According to Amnesty International’s latest report, the number of executions has risen sharply in many countries during the first nine months of 2025, while death sentences carried out in Iran have exceeded one thousand. The number of executions carried out in Iran in just nine months has already surpassed the total of 972 recorded in 2024, marking the highest level in the past 15 years.
Urgent action from Amnesty International
Amnesty said that following Israel’s attacks, executions accelerated under charges of “collaboration” and “espionage,” particularly targeting Kurdish and women activists, and announced that Pakhshan Azizi’s case “requires urgent intervention.”
As part of the campaign launched by Amnesty, a petition addressed to the head of Iran’s Judiciary demands that all plans to execute Pakhshan Azizi be immediately halted, that her conviction be overturned, and that she be released unconditionally. The petition also calls for her access to medical care, regular contact with her family and lawyers to be guaranteed until her release, and for allegations of torture and ill-treatment to be independently investigated. The organization also appealed to the international community to push for the complete abolition of the death penalty in Iran.
A public link to sign the petition has been shared for those wishing to support the campaign.
About Pakhshan Azizi
Iranian Kurdish activist Pakhshan Azizi was detained by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran on August 4, 2023, and transferred to Evin Prison. She was held in solitary confinement for five months, during which she was reportedly subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
Pakhshan Azizi was tried on charges of “armed rebellion against the state” for providing humanitarian aid to women and children who had fled Islamic State attacks and taken refuge in camps in northeastern Syria between 2014 and 2022. In July 2024, she was sentenced to death.
The court cited as “evidence” her participation in a 2009 protest against the execution of a Kurdish student and her support for the families of demonstrators killed in 2022.
Amnesty International described Pakhshan Azizi’s case as “politically motivated,” emphasizing that the Iranian judiciary “uses the death penalty as a weapon to silence activists.”